Professor Nuala McGrath BSc, MSc, ScD.
Professor of Epidemiology and Sexual Health
Nuala McGrath is Professor of Epidemiology and Sexual Health and NIHR Global Health Professor. Her work explores the value of couples-focused behaviour change strategies for health intervention research and practice in sub-Saharan Africa. Evaluating HIV treatment and prevention strategies including the promotion of HIV testing to reduce the onward transmission of HIV is another critically important and long-standing theme of her work.
Nuala received her undergraduate degree in Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research (University of Exeter, UK); a Masters in Biometry (University of Reading, UK); and a Doctorate in Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Harvard School of Public Health, USA). In the last 15 years, she has been the Principal Investigator of the Microbicides Development Programme feasibility study preparing for the phase III trial at the Africa Health Research Institute (formerly Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies) in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Field Director of the Wellcome Trust funded Karonga Prevention Study site (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) in rural Malawi; and a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow leading a programme of work focusing on sexual behaviour and partnership dynamics in the era of ART in KwaZulu-Natal. She was also lead statistician on the first couples-based intervention randomised controlled trial to have couples HIV counseling and testing as its outcome (NIH-funded); Steering Committee member of the NIMH-funded Project Accept, the ANRS-funded Treatment as Prevention Trial, and the NIHR-funded ‘Prevention and Testing for HIV: Economics and Outcomes of Novel Approaches’ (PANTHEON) programme evaluating cost-effectiveness of HIV self-testing among MSM in the UK; Independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board statistician for two international HIV clinical trials; and Malawian National Ethics Committee member. She has previously held Honorary appointments with the HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB research programme, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa (2007-2010), the School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2014-2017), and the Research Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, UK (2014-2017). She was a member of the Wellcome Trust Basic Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Interview Committee (2013-2018).
Nuala currently serves as a member of the FLAIR (Future Leaders – African Independent Research Fellowships) Interview Committee (2018- ), a partnership between the African Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund. She is also a Commissioner for the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK (2017- ), an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for International Development (DFID).
Prospective PhD students interested in continuing their research under the supervision and support of Professor McGrath are invited to get in touch via email.